Infant dies in Belmopan. Was it SIDS?
Police say they do not suspect foul play in the death of two month old Indira Chiquin of Belmopan. The baby girl’s mother, nineteen year old Rebecca Chiquin, told police that around two-thirty on Saturday she had just breast fed her daughter and put her to sleep but thirty minutes later after she returned to check on the infant and found the child dead. Today the police told News Five that as part of their investigation they are looking into the possibility that Baby Rebecca may have died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. SIDS affects children between the ages of one month and one year who appear healthy but die for no apparent reason. In the United States SIDS remains as one of the leading causes of infant death but because there are no available statistics in Belize it is not certain how many cases have been diagnosed here. Today I spoke with one of the country’s leading paediatricians, Doctor Victor Rosado. Rosado made it clear that he is not familiar with the Chiquin case, in which a post mortem will be conducted tomorrow, but he did agree to talk about SIDS and what parents can do to protect their children.
Dr. Victor Rosado, Paediatrician, Belize Medical Associates
“SIDS is considered what we call an exclusion diagnosis. So if you have ruled out all the other possibilities, all the other causes of death then you can entertain a diagnosis of SIDS. It is not really one of the first diagnosis that we would jump on after cursory clinical examination and say this is SIDS. Risk factors that are associated with SIDS are young mothers, mothers less than twenty years old. One of the most important risk factors that always come up with SIDS is a child sleeping on the belly. In 1992, I think, the American Academy of Paediatrics launched what they call a back to sleep campaign. In Belize–like I said I am sure we have genuine cases of SIDS, however, I question if many times we have not concluded a very meticulous post-mortem examination. We have not gone through a thorough medical history with the parents to be able to conclusively say that the child has died from SIDS. I think that in Belize there is definitely, there should definitely be SIDS, however, I would like to caution that SIDS is an exclusion diagnosis and that we need to improve our post-mortem examinations, maybe for them to be more meticulous. For us to investigate things like toxicology and to review the child’s clinical history cannot be called SIDS if the child has a pre-existing medical condition.”
Dr. Rosado says other risk factors associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome include maternal smoking, second hand smoking and even the type of bedding used for children in their first six months of life. Dr. Rosado says they do not recommend soft mattresses, comforters, pillows or stuffed toys as all of these items are considered choking hazards.
